Fruit that Lasts.

Sermon John 15:9-17 May 6, 2018 Easter 6B

Fruit that Lasts.

Last month was science fair month in many of the local schools. Charlie worked on a project about fruit. He wanted to know how long fruit lasts. More accurately he wanted to what lasted longer-whole fruit or cut up fruit.

How long fruits lasts is an important question if you pack your lunch for school or work. It is also an important question if you buy fruit from the store. Stocking up on tons of bananas when there is only one person in the house that eats bananas would not be wise if they all rot before they can be eaten.

It’s helpful to know how long fruit lasts and how long anything lasts.

Here in the gospel of John, Jesus is talking to his disciples and to a whole crowd of followers. He wants to give his final thoughts on how they should be living after he goes away.

When I hear Jesus talking to his disciples like this it reminds me of my dad. It reminds me of my grandfather. It reminds me of a teacher from long ago. It also reminds me of my pastor-who really wanted me to understand how to live out this amazing faith that gripped me and made me so in love with Jesus. He really wanted me to grasp what it meant to live in abiding love.

Have any of you ever thought on those words of Jesus-abide in my love?

It sounds a lot like something that happens when tow people marry.

It sounds a lot like this: marriage is not the culmination of love, but only the beginning.

Love remains and deepens, but its form changes. Or, more accurately, it renews itself in a different way. Less and less does it draw its waters from the old springs of romance, and you should not worry if over time these dimensions fade or are seen less frequently. More and more, love draws its replenishment from love itself: from the practice of conscious love, expressed in your mutual servanthood to one another. . . .

It will transform your lives and through its power in your own lives will reach out to touch the world. . . . But how to stay in touch with that power? At those times when stress mounts and romance seems far away, how do you practice that conscious love that will renew itself and renew your relationship? . . . CAC core faculty member, Cynthia Bourgeault

Those words are beautiful and they are words to seek to live by.

But, if we always use these beautiful words of Jesus about abiding in his love as they relate to girlfriends, boyfriends, husbands and wives, we might never get the idea that these words of abiding in his love about you and me and the church and everyone outside the church. 

Jesus says abide in my love because that’s the only way to be able to be consistent in love. It’s the only way to have the strength of love when we are angry and when we are crazy excited. Love in the way Jesus tells us here is not a feeling but an action. “Love seeks the well-being of others and is expressed in concrete efforts on their behalf. Thus love can be commanded.”

Love is not about us, but about the other.

It is about the surrender of our will.

It is about the giving in to God and the giving up of things that would be obstacles to another’s receipt of love.

Regardless of how we feel we move forward and show love towards another.

That’s why Jesus can say to us that our joy may be complete. The unity of the love of Christ within us makes it possible to move our way into new relationships, to strengthen old ones and sustain the ones we have now-all these leads to joy made complete.

Love is shown in ways of doing that are not always noticed as love when it comes to teaching responsibility, or saying no, or using time out. Love comes in ways that are difficult when we walk with someone through disease, illness or loss. Love is really challenging when those we love go a different way from what had hoped for them.

Henri Nouwen writes, “If we wait for a feeling of love before loving, we may never learn to love well…Mostly we know what the loving thing to do is. When we ‘do love’, even if others are not able to respond with love, we will discover that our feelings catch up with our acts.’ Joy complete!

Jesus reminds these amazing followers that they are his friends. It is so important to have friends. Jesus also reminds them that he is the one who chose them. It is so terrific when we discover someone who wants to be our friend. We have the choice to receive the gift of their friendship or turn on our heels and walk away. We have the extreme gift of the power of God’s love in us to choose friendships as he chose us-undergirded with genuine love.

How often have we gone out of our way to seek new friendship or sustain the current ones?

Are we tired?

Are we too busy?

Are we just exhausted from even the idea of one more task, esp. talking to someone?

And yet, Jesus points out that it is through his initiative that these friendships exist.

Perhaps that is our main lesson about fruit that lasts.

Perhaps, we are reminded again through the words of Jesus to abide with him and seek out others to share his love. 

Yes, that’s it. 

Abide in Jesus, 

do love, 

seek friends, 

and so our joy is complete.

The science experiment shows us how fruit lasts. 

Thank you, Charlie. 

Cut up fruit doesn’t last. 

Whole fruit such as bananas and strawberries last longest when they are kept in the bunch or on the vine. 

And mostly, we know it lasts best when it is shared. Amen.

Who is my neighbor?

Sermon Luke 10: 25- 37  March 22, 2017 Ecumenical Lenten Service @ Gaskins AME Church 

Who is my neighbor?

Years ago, I traveled to seminary from Lynchburg, Virginia to Richmond, Virginia. It was a two-hour drive traveling north on state road 29 to Charlottesville then east on I64 to Richmond. I loved the drive. The trip was easy and it gave me lots of time to think or study or listen to music. I was in my own little world, feeling independent and as if nothing could burden me.

Three days a week I took to the highway and never thought twice about ever needing any help. One day on the return trip I was listening to a great song on the radio in my Chevy Malibu when my right rear tire blew out. At first I wasn’t sure what happened. But, when the car wobbled and the steering shook I realized something was wrong. I pulled off to the side of the busy, crazy part of I64 and saw the damaged tire.

Now you might think it odd that I’ve never changed a flat tire. But there I was not wanting any help and certainly wanting to prove that I could do it ‘all by myself.’ I went to the trunk to find the tire and the jack stand. I went to the glove box and pulled out the owner’s manual. I looked at the jack stand and couldn’t figure out how to use it from first glance so I sat down on the side of the road and starting reading the book.

Cars were zooming past me and some slowed down and then kept on going. I looked up a few times and kept saying when I saw those faces, ‘please don’t stop.’ I’m begging you, please don’t stop.’ I’m not sure if I didn’t want help from those kinds of people or if I was just too stubborn to accept help.

At one point a semi-truck slowed down and then kept going. Whew, I sighed relief because I really didn’t want him to stop, I’ll figure this out. But less than five minutes later the truck had gone and made a U-turn and come back to help me. His first comments were, ‘lady, I saw you sitting there reading the owner’s manual and thought if anyone is reading a book to figure out how to change a tire they need help.’ He changed my tire and sent me on my way. I was truly grateful for the help I received. He was a gentleman and had gone out of his way and interrupted his schedule to help someone who needed it. To this day grateful for this grace lesson.

‘Who is my neighbor’, the lawyer asks Jesus. Jesus shares the Good Samaritan story with him. It is a lesson in Levitical Law. The lawyer knew the Law and didn’t need this lesson. As Christians, we know the lessons of Jesus. We really don’t need a lesson on how to be kind to others. We were raised up on those lessons. We can tell each other how good we are at helping the needy.  

But what about when we are the ones in need?

Have we ever considered how we would respond to a Samaritan coming to our aid?

I ask this today, because I believe ‘how we are willing to receive help and from whom, gets to core of our own prejudice’.

It gets to the heart of our deep feelings about others.

It gets us to realize how far we are willing to go with this command from Jesus.

Who is our neighbor?  The one we fear the most, coming to us with acts of mercy.

There we are on the side of the road, stuck in a ditch and people who are just like us drive by and don’t even stop to look or slow down.

The one we find less desirable takes time to help and makes sure we have everything we need. Can we handle that?                          Can we handle that?

Samaritans, according to the Jews of the day, were ‘stupid’ people.

(And we know a lot of ‘stupid’ people. We might not say it in public. But we sure do say it in the privacy of our homes. Yes, we call people by name frequently and we know it.) They were ‘dirty and unworthy’. They were the ‘less than’ people.

Who are the Samaritans of our day? Who are the people we would beg to not come to help us?

 

Bishop Kevin Dowling-a true Good Samaritan-
Tapologo Hospice, South Africa 

The priest and the Levite who walked past the man in the ditch felt burdened by the idea of having to interrupt their lives to help someone else.

A lot of how we help has to do with our schedule and our agenda.

We stop to help others when we are not already late to get to somewhere or to do something. When we are on our way to work or school, places where we punch a clock, we have tunnel vision and preoccupation with what matters for us.

A person on the side of the road just can’t fit into that agenda.

This parable is more than a good deed. It has many twists and turns with the outcast caring for the elite and the vulnerable showing hospitality to the less vulnerable. It has the twist that hospitality comes from a willingness to have our vision turned to the side to notice others around us and to disrupt our routine to offer ourselves, our money and our time.

A few years ago, I took a youth group to spent three days working at a homeless shelter in Louisville. The shelter was a hotel and those who lived there were learning all the skills of hotel work. Cooking, cleaning, management and so on. It was an eye-opening experience and a lesson about ‘all God’s creatures’.

I asked myself, ‘would I be willing to be vulnerable and get help from one of these people? I came to serve them, this was my mission to feel good about what I did not what they did for me.’  And yet, my life was altered and my tunnel vision changed.

I think the experience at the homeless shelter was recognizing the dignity restored to the men and women in the hotel.

People, once homeless, were given new life.

The men working in the kitchen were able to teach us how to do their job.

They taught us with pride and

helped me to realize that I wasn’t there just doing something to lift them out of the ditch

but

they were doing something to lift me

out of my short sightedness.

The Samaritan in this story looked beyond the lens of prejudice and could only envision mercy.

It took guts to do what he did.

Everything one could imagine could have kept him from helping.

But, he did it anyway.

You see, To act in love for our Lord in the world demonstrates the power that love gives to discipleship;

pure love and tenderness

wrapped in the package of pure audacity and boldness.

It wasn’t too long ago, that we were unwilling to accept a blood transfusion based on the color of the skin of the donor.

It wasn’t too long ago that we were not willing to be taught by a teacher of a particular sexual orientation.

It wasn’t too long ago that we were not willing to receive a son or daughter in law based on religion.

It wasn’t too long ago that we were unwilling to have a person working for us who had a thick accent.

It wasn’t too long ago that we were unwilling to receive mercy, love, care concern, from anyone different from us.

Who is our neighbor? Jesus doesn’t need to answer us, we already know. Go and live it!

The family of God has many members and they are not all just like me.

Brothers and sisters come in all shapes, sizes, and behaviors.

As we discover how our community is diverse in many ways here on the Eastern Shore, we have the opportunity to discover how to live with shared faith, shared experience, and shared traditions.

Who is our neighbor? The one who showed mercy. Go and do likewise. Amen.

Excerpts from FPC sermon of 7/14/2013 ‘My Flat Tire’

Standing for Faith

Sermon Romans 3:19-28 October 30, 2016 Reformation Sunday

Standing for Faith

After I submitted this title for my sermon a few months ago, I was fairly certain about my sermon focus. But, as the nation seems to be in turmoil about values, as neighbors are stealing candidate signs out of each other’s yards, as name calling has crossed the line on social media and even among respected reporters, I find myself wondering, what does it really mean to stand for faith?

Today we remember the Reformation. We are known as Protestants-because of those who protested against the then current form of faith expression.

This Scripture from Romans was the power behind Martin Luther’s protest-

we are justified by faith in God given to us in Jesus Christ-

not but any rules of humanity,

not by any organized religious doctrine,

but by the power of the Word of God to transform us

from our human wickedness

into a Godly righteousness.

Paul was pointing to a moment of crisis for those who were listening.

It was a moment of crisis for those of faith

and it was a moment of crisis for the world in which they were living.

It was a moment of crisis for an understanding of faith expression.

For the Jews (of which Paul was one) the Temple had been destroyed.

For the Gentiles they were never accepted in any circle.

And for both groups, the Roman government had taken a violent turn

and placed an even more oppressive hand of rule over the people.

Which leads me to ask today:

What is our current form of faith expression?

What is it that brings our faith to a moment of crisis? Can you remember a time when your faith has been in crisis?

What brings our attention to the matters of the world?

What brings us to a place where we see the world in crisis?

And in this crisis of faith and world, where do we get our understanding of it and where does the possibility of realizing who we are in it come from?

Karl Barth, Jean Calvin, and Martin Luther point out that we return to the origins of our Maker who evokes within us a memory of our habitation with the Lord of Heaven and Earth. Let me repeat these long ago words- we return to the origins of our Maker who evokes within us a memory of our habitation with the Lord of Heaven and Earth. In other words, we are reminded of how we are connected.

We are able to recognize who we are, how the world is, through the power of God who shows us. God places within us the conviction of ourselves as beings who are not perfect; “Beings who look up to the heavens, who look to a time beyond time; who look to an impossible possibility.” (Karl Barth). God places us to where we are able to view the power of God for us for our salvation-for life in death and for eternity in time.

We are the expression of God’s love for the world and we are the expression of the impossible possibility through the power of God in Jesus Christ. 

That said we have a bit of work to do.

We are a people who have fallen and been broken and who have shown emotions to one another that are irreprehensible. We are guilty. We are a people who have sinned.

As you know I am not a fire and brimstone preacher. But we need the reminder of our sin and our brokenness to remember the power of God to re-form us. I am aware of our constant need to look in the mirror and tell ourselves we are a child of God. And with that face to face view in the mirror we also discover our need for reliance our dependence on God. God sees beyond the flaws and beyond the faults and sees the beauty of grace and the wonder of God’s righteousness in us.

That’s why Paul’s “But now” is so important. These two little words, “But now” are really important. “But now” is the hinge on which our faith exists.

It is the remarkable power of God to transform humanity and fling it into a world where faith expression can heal, make whole, restore and rebuild a suffering world and a suffering community and a suffering soul.

We are made whole through the love of God. We are God’s people. We are children of God. We are a broken people bound together as one through the Body of Christ. We are a community of faith united, sealed in the blood of Christ as grace is poured out on us. Our ability to stand for faith is not just our individual faith but the faith we have together as God calls us the Church.

These little words “but now” remind us that we have God’s promise for the impossible to be possible; and that is the great hope for the Church.

We stand in the tension of the now and the not yet.

We live in the tension of what is and what should and could be.

And these two little words “But now” remind us there is no small gesture and no tiny deed-all things are possible.

Years ago I was part of a mission group, an inter-generational group, who went to Russia. We worked together at an orphanage of 400 mentally challenged children; children who were unadoptable and unaccepted in the community. We worked hard for two weeks 

and at the end of our time our emotions had been tested. Our mission was a powerful experience and we were spiritually and emotionally exhausted.  As we waited in the airport of Moscow for our return trip I noticed a woman who was lying across the seats in the waiting area. She was a woman of Turkish descent, dark skin, clothing that defined her ethnicity, a scarf covering her head. She was sound asleep and it was clear she too was exhausted. My attention was drawn to her because a group of women speaking in Dutch surrounding her were calling her names and they were yelling at her to get out of their seats. Now this happened years ago. As I look back I realize my reaction was a knee jerk reaction. I realize I was not quite in control of my temper. But as I watched my heart ached. My gut wrenched. When the women started cursing and kicking this pour soul that could barely raise her head to respond, I lost it. I ran to her side and began to yell back in Dutch that this was a child of God, how dare they seek to harm someone who had a right to be there. I moved the woman from the seats and found her a safe place to rest. I was shaken. I was shocked that one person could be treated so badly in public. My flight home after this reaction was hard. That moment still catches me in a flood of emotion. I realize that this stand for this woman was a stand for faith.

Standing for faith is standing together. It is to protest that which we believe is against the things that tear us apart.

Standing for faith calls us to seek to live united. It calls us to be listeners.

Standing for faith means to get up and speak for those who have no voice.

Standing for faith requires us to see in another value greater than our own.

Standing for faith means to be willing, as Ghandi told his wife, to clean toilets with the untouchables, even when we struggle to bring ourselves to do it.

Standing for faith requires us to respect differences of opinion while at the same time seek justice.

Standing for faith calls us to see in the face of the one who we would deem our enemy-our brother.

This is the constant tension as we live and seek to live for Christ.

The reformers were not seeking to start a new religion. They like many before them were seeking new understanding.

They were seeking to be re-formed in faith.

Those days and hopefully many to come in the future were days when eyes were opened to see faith in a new way. It was the power of God to grant vision through newly cleaned lenses.

May we see the vision God has for us as we stand for faith together. Amen.